Transformations  in
Business & Economics

Assessing Marketing Graduates Self-Efficacy: An Exploratory Analysis
Corneliu Munteanu, Ciprian Ceobanu, Oana Anton

ABSTRACT. The self-efficacy construct refers to people confidence in successfully performing certain tasks. It refers both to very specific type of tasks (i.e., mathematical problem solving) and broad type of activities (i.e., coping with general life type of problems). This paper is an explanatory research in self-efficacy issues for marketing graduates. Since research on this specific type of activities is very scarce, a new scale, intended to measure marketing graduates’ professional self-efficacy, has been developed. Further on, an exploratory factor analysis was carried for identifying major dimensions which lie behind the initial items. Results show significant differences between the factor structures for two different cohorts graduating marketing program at the same university, but under different curricula structure: the last series of graduates under pre-Bologna structure (with the 8-semesters long program), and first series under post-Bologna structure (with the 6 semesters program).

KEYWORDS: self-efficacy, marketing education, factor analysis, scale development, Romania.

JEL classification: A23, C14, M31, P2.